Oakland Hills makes pitch for U.S. Open championship

The U.S. Open is not in Oakland Hills’ immediate future, but club officials are making a heavy pitch to bring it back to Bloomfield Hills.

“We have extended an invitation to the USGA to come back (to Oakland Hills for a U.S. Open),” said Lee Juett, general chairman for the 116th U.S. Amateur, which Oakland Hills is hosting next month. “We have not had any further discussions (with the USGA), but we expect to have those during the Amateur.”

The United States Golf Association, which sponsors the tournament, has booked its future Open sites through the year 2026, so the earliest Oakland Hills could host its seventh U.S. Open would be 2027.

Ben Kimball, who serves as the USGA’s director for the Women’s Open and U.S. Amateur championships, indicated Oakland Hills is certainly on the short list of potential U.S. Open venues. The USGA’s future site’s committee, he said, will make the final decision.

“We want to take our championships to the best venues in the country and (Oakland Hills) is one of them. It is one of the top courses in the world,” Kimball said at Tuesday’s U.S. Amateur press conference inside the Oakland Hills clubhouse. “But we remain focused on the 2016 U.S. Amateur and we’ll let that play out before any future (U.S. Open) discussions happen.”

Historic Oakland Hills has hosted the U.S. Open, one of pro golf’s four major tournaments, six times in its esteemed 100-year history.

The longest Oakland Hills has gone without hosting a U.S. Open since the first one in 1924 was 24 years, from 1961 (when Gene Littler won) to 1985 (when Andy North captured the crown).

The last U.S. Open held at Oakland Hills was 1996, when Steve Jones won by a stroke over Davis Love III and Tom Lehman. The other Open winners at Oakland Hills were Ben Hogan (1951), who nicknamed the South Course “The Monster” after his victory, Ralph Guldahl (1937) and Cyril Walker (1924).

This year’s U.S. Open was held at Oakmont Country Club, outside of Pittsburgh.